-1Chapter 20

It had been well know in all the Sohma family, that the Cat and the Rat could never love each other, but it seemed to those cursed that any member of the Zodiac never to find love. So when two did find love together, the stories and rumours' ran though the family, those who knew of the curse disapproved while those who didn't made stories as they tried to find out why.

But the love between Memso Sohma and his partner, Kisa Sohma was like the tale of Romeo and Juliet all over again, except this time, they were ordered by T'lenna the Head of the Sohma family that they could not be together. Kisa tried to fight for there right to be together in the growing crises of the world, as the politics and governments started to cry for war.

She was banished from the Sohma family, even though those cursed as she -bearing the weight of the Rat sign- were usually there most guarded and hidden, she was cast out for her disobedience. She urged Memso to join her in her exile but he always found a reason to stay, he was under the sign of the Cow and was favoured amongst family though he would go and visit her as often as possible, there relationship straining to breaking point as they grew apart.

There last night together, they made love, and in the morning, while they held each other for the last time, she told him she had been offered a job in one of the Colonies by one of her old school friends. It was good money and she couldn't stay were she was anymore.

"But why my love? Do you not care for me anymore?" He asked, hurt by her words and pulling away, sitting up in bed. She lay there still, her eyes staring at nothing as she spoke, trying to make her words less painful for the both of them.

"Of course I do, but living outside the family like this is tearing me apart inside, watching you all from behind bars? I might as well be cursed by the Cat, living in a cage and watching my family grow around and away from me." She sat up now, hugging her knees and resting her chin on them. "I need a clean break."

She looking at him, her piercing blue eyes striking right into his softer golden eyes, he had always told her one of the things he loved the most was her eyes.

"I'm offering you a chance to come with me. The shuttle leaves at nine tonight. I need to leave and start gathering my things, tying off my loose ends… You've got one chance my love, you can either be with me in space or I will never see you again."

They got up, dressed, kissed one last time, while he promised to think about it in the day ahead but as he walked threw town and back to Sohma house, he was unsure. Every face he saw as he headed to his house was another reason not to go, while at other moments, ever time he saw a spot were they used to play as children or meet up as secret lovers was a reason to go.

But, as seven o'clock swung round, he had made his mind to go, the head of the family made a special visit to his house. She sat there, in her beautiful robes, her thin frame emphasised by the ornate and beautiful garments she always wore and they spoke lightly of things for a while, the weather, the children of the house, the new Zodiac members.

But as he started to fidget, looking at the clock as it swung round to half seven T'lenna said one simple thing to him. "Remember Tohru Honda." Before standing up and leaving, one of her maids helping her into a wheel chair once she was outside, to be taken back to her apartments.

Memso didn't move for more than ten minuets, his mind locked in thought, his heart screaming at him to do one thing while his mind and loyalties called for another. In the end, he was sitting on his porch step at nine o'clock, looking up and out at the stars and the tiny flairs of the shuttle ships coming and going.

He started to make secret plans to steal away to space for one reason or another, business, friends, holiday, but with the growing risk of war and the Earth and Colonies it became harder and harder for him to find a way, to put his plan into motion.

Then hope, two years after she had left him, he had found a reason to go to space, to visit the Colony she was on, find the address she had given him. But it was still two weeks before he was due to leave when he was informed.

Kisa had been at work, in the office her friend had gotten her the job in, when there had been a terrorist attack. Several bombs had gone off in the area and it had turned into an inferno. Her boyfriend of the time, Odin, was horrified and deeply shocked by what had happened, sending a letter to her family to let them know even thought she hadn't spoken to them for years.

He had mentioned a boy, but he had simply assumed it was Odins as had the man himself. Memso' health had started to go down hill at that point, making him weak and unable to work in the family businesses properly. So he had moved from holiday home to holiday home, leaving the places they had been together, only to keep a few photo's of her around his home.

Memento's of happier times.

He told Heero this, but of course, left out the parts about the Zodiac curse, he wasn't to tell him yet. Unless he showed the signs… and then, he could only pray that he wasn't the 13th member.